Before the mirror

Before the Mirror shows a woman seated at her kyodai dressing stand, the composition organized around the doubled presence of figure and reflection — a device that allowed shin-hanga bijin-ga artists to present the face from two angles simultaneously and to explore the introspective moment of self-regard. The subject permits Hirano to render the careful arrangement of hair ornaments, the line where collar meets nape, and the soft fall of an inner kimono against the woman's shoulders, all rendered through the layered nishiki-e printing of multiple woodblocks on washi with baren-applied pressure. Mirror compositions placed particular demands on the registration of the print, since the reflected face had to align convincingly with its source while remaining slightly recessed in tone, often achieved through a lighter gray or muted bokashi within the mirror's oval. Published by Watanabe Shozaburo, the print belongs to the lineage of toilette scenes that Goyo Hashiguchi established as a defining shin-hanga subject and that Hirano continued in his own quieter idiom alongside artists working in the same workshop.